Alberto Julian Meza, a strange South American con man, was arrested recently in Paraguay for tricking people into believing that he was a lost, overgrown child. The 25-year-old mainly targeted older women – he dressed up in nappies and sucked on lollipops, pretending that he was lost and searching for his mummy. Believe it or not, it worked.

According to locals in the town of Villa Elisa, a suburb of Asuncion, Meza was regularly seen walking around in his adult diapers.. At first they had assumed that he was mentally ill, but in reality, he would fool women into letting him into their homes, and later steal whatever he could when they were fixing him a snack or bringing him a drink.

“I am surprised that the police have only just now arrested him,” said local resident Lara Orta Ornelas. “He has been doing this for years and I know the police have had complaints before, but it’s incredible they never realized the baby is actually a fully grown man.

It’s often said that in order to de-stress, you need to keep the inner child alive. But what if there was a person who kept it alive all day, every day? Sounds a little creepy, I know, but that’s exactly what 31-year-old Stanley Thornton does. He lives a double-life – as an adult outside the house and a baby inside. Some see it as a psychological condition, and others call it a fetish, but Thornton says it’s only his method of letting go of stress.

Thornton’s typical day goes something like this: Every night he goes to sleep in his giant crib, dressed in a playsuit, with colorful mobiles hanging from the ceiling. In the morning, his mommy wakes him up and feeds him with a bottle or a spoon. He then changes into adult clothes when he goes outside. But he’s back home in the evening and into his baby clothes again. It’s play time and he’s occupied with Legos, stuffed animals and a giant high-chair. Thornton was 13 years old when he was abused and started wetting the bed at night, so he started wearing diapers. He then gradually began to realize that he liked and wanted all the comforts of babyhood. At age 20, he started day wetting and wearing a diaper full time. The strangest part here is that the woman caring for him is not really his mother. Sandra Diaz is Thornton’s roommate, and voluntarily cares for him as a mother would for her child. “I love him like he is my favorite nephew,” she says. “He is like my family member who lost his mother, and I’m like the aunt stepping in and saying I’m still here for you.”